Former Boulder police Officer Christian McCracken looks at his victims while apologizing during his sentencing hearing Monday in Boulder District Court. The ex-cop was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 10 years probation after pleading guilty to felony stalking.
(JEREMY PAPASSO)

The former Boulder police officer accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend and plotting to kill her new boyfriend was sentenced Monday to 90 days in jail and 10 years of intensive supervised probation after his victims indicated that would make them feel more safe than a prison sentence.

Christian McCracken, 33, did receive a suspended three-year prison sentence from Chief District Judge Roxanne Bailin that he will serve only if he fails to comply with the terms of his probation, which include an order not to return to the state of Colorado without permission from his probation officer.

"My everyday life is consumed by intrusive thoughts and fears, and I feel like I cannot stress how dangerous I think he still is," McCracken's ex-girlfriend said in court. "In five years, I will still be looking over my shoulder, still waiting for him to finish his murderous plan."

McCracken pleaded guilty to one count of stalking -- a Class 5 felony -- in February in exchange for prosecutors dropping one charge of first-degree attempted murder, felony menacing and two other counts of stalking.

While the stalking charge could have carried a prison sentence of one to three years, prosecutor Ryan Brackley asked for the jail sentence and probation because the victims felt the sentence would keep them safer for a longer period of time, with the suspended prison sentence serving as incentive.

"(McCracken's ex-girlfriend) is angry about what the defendant did to her and what he did to her life, but that anger never turned into a need for revenge -- it was always just centered in fear, and the fear that the defendant's actions put her in and their extended family," Brackley said. "They just want to feel safe, and just want the court to impose a sentence that will make them feel safe."

Injured in the line of duty

According to prosecutors, McCracken stalked his ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend -- both Boulder police dispatchers -- and, at one point made, a plan to kill the boyfriend.

McCracken suffered a head injury while making an arrest on University Hill in 2011, and the victim helped take care of him. But she told the judge that McCracken began abusing his medication and blaming his failure to get better on her.

After she asked him to stop contacting her, McCracken began calling her and stalking her, she said -- sometimes asking co-workers to tell him where she was.

"I cannot understand why he would want to hurt me when I took care of him and was a friend to him for so long," she said.

Last April, McCracken retrieved two of his own guns that he kept at the police station while on medical leave, according to police. McCracken told his roommate -- fellow Boulder police Officer John Smyly -- that he was going to shoot the male dispatcher in front of his ex-girlfriend, kill her and then go up into the mountains to commit suicide, according to police.

Smyly convinced McCracken to go to Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette to be evaluated. Broomfield police, having been contacted both by Boulder police and the ex-girlfriend, arrived at the hospital to arrest McCracken.

In opposing the jail sentence, McCracken's attorney, David Moorhead, said McCracken was adversely affected by his head injury.

"Mr. McCracken was injured in the line of duty and without that having happened, the people that know him don't believe he would be here today," Moorhead said.

But prosecutors said there was evidence that McCracken's behavior was disturbing before the head injury and that he had expressed little remorse in the case. An ex-wife and some ex-girlfriends said he made threats and disturbing statements to them, according to prosecutors.

"These are things that occurred well before the defendant's head injury," Brackley said.

Brackley added that, at one point, McCracken asked the victim's sister out on a date and contacted other members of the victims' families. He also made Facebook posts around the time of his plea deal, writing, "I may look calm in my head but I've killed you three times lmao!!!" and, "Patience is what you have to have when there are too many witnesses."

'I ask for their forgiveness'

In making a statement to Bailin, McCracken -- who resigned from the Boulder Police Department last year -- apologized to the victims and the department.

"I cannot imagine what (the victims) have been through because of what I said I was going to do," McCracken said. "I caused a great deal of embarrassment to the Boulder Police Department and caused the community to lose trust in its officers.

"I hope over time (the victims) can learn to feel safe again and I ask for their forgiveness and the community's forgiveness."

In handing down the sentence, Bailin said she thinks McCracken's head injury could not be used as an excuse for his "outrageous and dangerous" behavior.

"I understand there are at least two camps here, those who say you did this only because of the traumatic brain injury, and those who say you did it because it is a manifestation of your true colors," she said. "I think you are a dangerous person, and I would say that you had these traits before the traumatic brain injury."

Bailin added that while Smyly testified at the hearing that McCracken ultimately chose not to go through with the plan, the officer's actions saved lives.

"I think I would be presiding over a murder trial or a murder sentencing or not over anything because you would have killed yourself, too," she said. "Everyone owes (Smyly) because I think he stopped you from doing something you were planning on doing."

McCracken was immediately remanded into custody and transported to the Boulder County Jail.

Moorhead indicated the former officer likely would serve his probation in Alabama, where he had been staying during the case proceedings.

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